Adversity and tragedy dog winners of Grand National

Press, 4 April 1987, Page 34

Adversity and tragedy dog winners of Grand National

By

MIKE HEDGE

of NZPA-AAP, London

A good story can be as useful as good form in finding the winner of one of the world’s most famous horseraces, the Grand National at Aintree in the early hours of tomorrow morning, New Zealand time. . _ .. ..

Adversity off the racetrack, scandal and tragedy have often been part of a National victory, and the leader in the fairy tale stakes for the second successive year is West Tip. Among the Grand National stories which have accompanied previous winners has been Aldaniti’s recovery from • crippling . injury and his jockey Bob Champion’s victory over cancer before their 1981 victory. Red Rum became a story in himself by the time he had won two of his three Nationals, but his first arrival at Aintree, in 1973, from Ginger ' McCain’s stables behind a used car lot in nearby Southport .was a readymade piece of romance. There is a tale that does the rounds every year that the 1947 winner, Caughoo, stopped in the fog after jumping Beecher’s Brook and rejoined the field in the second lap. Last year West Tip didn’t let the storytellers down and he is favourite again.

He has not won in seven appearances this season but is still set to start the shortest priced Grand National runner since Red Rum was 7-2 favourite in 1975 and finished second. Among the 40 entrants there might be a story to equal West Tip’s. A good case could probably be made for the Czechoslovakian runner, Valencio,' and the' half dozen Irish entrants could almost certainly come up with something. But’ West Tip has been hit by a truck and has the scars to prove it. Hundreds of stitches were required to repair muscle tissue around West

Tip’s nearside hindquarter which was ripped open in the accident and the horse carries an awful scar and a noticeable dent in his rump as a legacy. This year trainer, Michael Oliver, and jockey, Richard Dunwoody, added another chapter with an acrimonious split three weeks ago. The mount on West Tip went to a rival jockey, Richard Linley, who was seriously injured in a car accident last year in which his wife was killed. But Linley badly dislocated his shoulder on the same day it was announced he had won the

ride and Dunwoody was reinstated. West Tip firmed to 9-2 favouritism for the National with his run into fourth place behind The Thinker at level weights in Britain’s best steeplechase, the Cheltenham Gold Cup. The Thinker has a one pound advantage on Saturday and he seems likely to get the heavy ground he appreciates, although his jumping is suspect. Of the first six home last year only West Tip. and Classified return. Classified finished third in 1986 after leading two furlongs out and Steve

Smith-Eccles retains the ride. The only other Grand National winner engaged is Corbiere, which will be ridden by Ben de Haan, who was successful on the gelding in 1983. An American horse, Bewley’s Hill, and a Czech entrant, Valencio, are the automatic topweights,, being allotted 12 stone (76kg) because they have insufficient British form. While the U.S. trained ’chasers, Ben Nevis, in 1980, and Jay Trump, in 1965, have been successful, Bewley’s’Hill appears safely held with his huge weight.